Abandoned school in Cleveland OH
West Technical High School, Cleveland Ohio
On February 15, 1912 construction on West Tech High School was complete. Twelve teachers and 24 students from East Tech High School inhabited the new school shortly thereafter. West Tech offered a distinctive curriculum of three different programs: technical, commercial, and academic (college preparatory). The school was known for the quality and variety of its vocational courses. In later years, the school concentrated on class work rather than vocational schooling. The school partook in training skilled workers during both WW I and II. Of particular note are the following facts. The school offered the first auto driving classes in the U.S. in 1936. It was the first school to offer aeronautics/aircraft classes, and for a long time the only high school to offer metallurgy classes. For many years it was the only high school in the city that could be attended by choice, by west-siders. It was one of the nation's first public schools to get a radio transmitter (in the 1920s) and the school featured an excellent intramural broadcasting system. This interschool broadcasting system was the first of its kind in the world, and was based at West Tech's broadcasting studio. West Tech once featured the largest school greenhouse in the U.S., and the only vocational horticulture program in Cleveland.
In 1929, Old West Commerce High School merged with West Tech enrolling 4,026 students. In 1937, the school celebrated its 25th Anniversary and was visited by over 22,000. In 1938 the school reached its peak enrollment of 4,479 students. In 1947, over 10,000 fans witnessed the first night game under the new lighting system at West Tech Field. As late as the 1970-71 school year, West Tech was the largest high school in the state (as it was in 1938). The school closed at the end of the 1994-95 school year and was threatened with demolition. In the fall of 1999, a fire started in the auditorium and damaged the surface plaster throughout the auditorium and destroyed much of the stage.
According to the "Dictionary of Cleveland Biography", the following were among West Tech's notable alumni: Alexander J. Hamilton (1903-1994) an Olympic gold medallist in speed skating; Edward Burk Henning (1922-1993), an art historian and the Cleveland Museum of Art's first curator of contemporary art; Frank Herzegh (1907-1989), an inventor important in the development of tires; Paul Elmer Leimkuehler (1918-1993), who founded a prosthetics business; and Lowell O. Mellen (1897-1993) who was a pioneer in industrial training. Other significant persons included Sante Grazzini, a Pulitzer Prize winner and head of Worcester, Mass., Art School.
Development of the Cleveland School System
The first schoolhouse in Cleveland, a crude structure built of logs, was built in 1806 at the foot of Superior Street. Asael Adams "kept school" for six hours a day for a monthly stipend of $10 and board. The second school erected in Cleveland was built on St. Clair Street in 1821. The building was one of the few brick structures in the city. It was purchased by the city in 1839 for $6,000. A tax-supported public school system was introduced to Cleveland, soon after the state legislation incorporated Cleveland, in 1836. The city council appointed a board of school managers, and opened the Bethel Union school. In 1839, the city decided to divide the city into four school districts and buy lots 50 by 200 feet in dimension whereupon school buildings would be erected at a cost not to exceed $3,500, including equipment. These buildings were the simplest in design and accommodated 200 pupils.
By 1842 there were 15 public schools in Cleveland, enrolling 1,200 students. In 1846, school manager Charles Bradburn established the first public high school, Central High School, which was also the first public high school west of the Alleghenies. Cleveland superintendent, Andrew Rickoff, established the current education program of classifying students into 12 grades and three divisions of primary, grammar, and high schools, which placed students in graded curriculum according to their age and ability. During Rickoffs 15-year tenure, the schools expanded from 9,463 to 26,990 students and from 123 to 473 teachers. National acclaim came to the educational exhibits of the Cleveland Public Schools at the Centennial Exhibition of 1876.
In 1884, an after-school program called the Manual Training School opened, including classes in Carpentry, woodturning, mechanical drawing, machine shop, and cooking. The school board opened West Manual Training School and added a two-year business course to the secondary curriculum. William H. Elson, Superintendent from 1905 - 1917, pioneered vocational education by opening a technical school in 1909. Also in 1909, an industrial school opened for non-academically talented children, which devoted a half-day to academic work and the remainder to industrial work, home economics, and physical education.
A greater emphasis on vocational education focused around a desire to retain students in the upper grade. In 1915, 2/3 of the upper student body left the Cleveland school systems before the legally required age. Secondly, as part of the progressive movement, the course of the schools broadened to include recreation, extra-curricular activities, and public health. Thirdly, efforts in Cleveland schools were made to Americanize the children of immigrants. Many of these concepts trace their origins to an educational commission study of 1905 - 1906 that was implemented by the school board from 1906 - 1910. In 1921, the Bing Act required school attendance until the age of 18. As a result of these developments in education, the school population in 1918 numbered 106,862, with 4,715 in the commercial-technical high schools. In the 1920s, daily enrollment rose to 144,000, which encouraged the construction of 32 schools between 1920 and 1930.
Vocational Education
Vocational education aims to make an intelligent producer, either of commodities or of services. Many high schools prepare potential candidates for entrance to higher institutions. Vocational schools prepare students for immediate self-support in a determined-upon occupation. Vocational education is for two distinct groups of students, boys and girls enrolled in public school (all-day instruction) and workers who have already entered employment (part-time and evening schools).
The Smith-Hughes Act of 1917 was a major contributor to encouraging communities to invest in vocational schools. The Federal Act aided in providing to state and local communities federal funds for the salaries of teachers in vocational schools and stipulated in detail the vocational character of the courses to be taught. The Federal and State Acts provided for all-day, part-time, and evening vocational schools.
The trade or industrial training required a separate school. Initially, vocational schools were remodeled old factory buildings or abandoned schoolhouses that had outlived their usefulness for general education and remodeled to serve temporarily for industrial training. The special building erected for vocational purposes, as with West-Tech, was rare at the time and obviously the most desired by the School Board. Vocational schools required much more square footage for classrooms. At the time classrooms were approximately 22 x 32 feet and accommodated 45 pupils. According to John Donovan's School Architecture: Principles and Practices, vocational school buildings should be planned with the following dimensions based on particular industrial work. Shop-floor space should provide 100 to 300 square feet per pupil or 1,500 square feet per shop, ceilings should be 12 to 32 feet, rooms for class recitation, mechanical drawing and laboratories should provide 25 to 90 square feet per pupil, with adequate tool and stock rooms. Other desirable characteristics included windows on both sides and supplemented by skylights whenever possible. The window-glass area should not be less than one-fourth the area of the floor space. Floors should be wood, walls brick or un-plastered for exterior walls and tile or light frame for interior partitions. Stock, tool and supply rooms should be adequate to contain the appropriate materials and the proper heating and venting. The machine room should be located on the ground floor. West Tech's original industrial classroom layout demonstrates many of these planning components.
Building Description
West Technical High School is located at 2201 West 93 Street on a lot bounded by W. 93rd Street to the east, W. 89th St. to the west, Sauer Avenue to the north and Willard Avenue to the south. The site is nestled in a residential neighborhood comprised of mainly 1½ story and 2½ story frame houses. The existing school complex consists of the original school building structure plus several additions constructed from 1911-1972. The school building is situated at the south end of the site and shares the lot with a parking area, a track, an athletic field and a grandstand to the north. There are two primary entries to the school, one at the corner of W. 93rd and Willard Avenue and the other centrally located on the W. 93rd Street elevation. Secondary entrances face W. 89th Street, Willard Avenue, the athletic field and West 93rd Street at the north end. An iron fence surrounds the complex. Abandoned gardens are located in the southeastern portion of the lot, and scattered plants prove evidence of the school's former horticultural program.
1910
The athletic field, track, and grandstand, known as West Field, were constructed in 1910 along
with a small frame building for storage and ticket sales. The school adapted the lot known as
West Field at the time of the schools' construction.
1911-12
The original portion (western 2/3), 3 story brick building, built in 1911-12, was designed by architect
F.S. Barnum and was constructed in the Neo-Classical Style. The building's facade fronts West 93rd
Street, although the main entrance is at the southwest corner at West 93rd Street and Willard Avenue. The
building is rectangular in plan, with projecting bays on the west side and saw-tooth light wells on the
east side. The building was designed to accommodate classrooms, an auditorium, machine shops,
locker rooms, a foundry, a mill room, and a power plant. The track, athletic field and grandstands are
on the north end of the lot.
The building varies from three to four stories and features brick veneer and stone trim. Wood multi-light windows are grouped in vertical ranks surrounded by stone frames and divided by ornamented stone panels. Vertical stone mullions articulate windows on the facade and the spandrels have festoons. The entrances are articulated with classical columns, entablatures, balusters and cartouches. A balustrade parapet accents the main facades. In order to achieve maximum light into the classrooms, light wells divide the block into three sections. Saw-tooth skylights at the base of the light wells provide light into the basement.
The building is constructed of fireproof construction and the interior finishes reflect this. Original walls are clay block finished with plaster, or glazed brick, floors are covered with an early quarry tile, and ceilings are dropped in many areas concealing original plaster ceiling surfaces. The classrooms display typical educational amenities and the hallways are lined with lockers.
1912-1922
Between 1911 and 1922, three one-story utility buildings were built in the north section of the lot. The
attached utility building is the power plant built in 1922. The power plant is a flat roof
masonry wall structure with a rectangular plan. Steel factory sash windows are the only articulation this
building offers. The two smaller outbuildings include a transformer room and another related structure.
1922-24
A three-story addition was constructed to the west of the main block in the same style. This portion was
constructed in 1922-24 and was designed by W.R. McCornack, successor to Barnum as the Cleveland
Board of Education Architect. This addition continued and enclosed the light wells formed by the
building's wings, making them central and internal to the schools massing, and included classrooms
and a new gymnasium.
1922
One of the notable programs at the school was the Green Thumb Club, a horticultural program. The
school had a one-story building constructed, noted as the garden building on the Sanborn maps, sometime
between 1912-1932, and two greenhouses that were constructed over the years 1922 to 1932.
These buildings are located east of the main school building. The greenhouses
were demolished in 1972 and all that remains are the slab foundations. The existing building features a
gable roof with modest classical detailing. It demonstrates decades of neglect. Adjacent and nearby are
two ramps to a lower level.
1948
A one-story addition was built at the southeast corner in 1948 and housed aviation mechanics,
welding, and the auto body shops. This building features curved exterior masonry walls. All of
the window openings have been closed in with either brick or cement block.
1972
A new larger gymnasium was built to the northeast of the school complex and is connected to the main
school at the basement and first floor levels. The building is one-story in height and then steps up to
two stories. The entrance is emphasized by the use of white painted cast stone. The exterior brick walls
feature brick relief work that mimics the bay division. These design elements are sympathetic to the
original building's window bay size, and rhythm but is windowless. Two additional,
small utilitarian structures of unadorned design accommodate the complex. and three small one-story
compost bins which are located in a courtyard adjacent to the greenhouse.
A fire in October of 1999, destroyed the stage in the auditorium and charred many of the finishes and damaged windows in that space. The track is overgrown and the grandstands are in an extreme state of disrepair.
